Good Hair - Chris Rock ; Movie Review

MY Overall Rating : 3 out of 5 'When Chris Rock’s daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” the bewildered comic committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl's head!'
- festival.sudance.org
It was like a Doctor Phil episode. He identifies and identifies the problem, but no matter how much talking it seems like he's done you never really walk away with a useful conclusion or realistic solution. But at least you know the problem. =]

Because Chris Rock is classified as solely a comedian/entertainer, I can't be too surprised in the turn out of this film. At a glance I was under the impression that Rock's the motivation for creating this documentary was to bring attention to black hair, create awareness of the hate many of us subconsciously have towards our tight kinks and coils in a comedic/educational way. Based on his daughter Lola's statement one would assume Rock would go on an expedition with this film to show girls around the world just like his young and feeble daughter the beauty of our natural hair. Unfortunately though, he did just the opposite. It almost seems like Chris Rock's movie "Good Hair" perpetuated the Uncle Tom mentality to some degree. [And this all could of been avoided with a meaningful conclusion.]

In all fairness I give Chris credit for tackling this difficult topic. He commuted far and wide to find out where our weaves, relaxers and straightening tools come from. He educated his audience on the dangers of relaxers and the pain behind our "human hair weaves." He undoubtedly exposed the issues we have. From a journalistic perspective however, I can adamantly say he DID NOT COVER THE STORY. Which means he did not address each angle therefore misleading the audience. So many very important factors were left out.

I hate to be the hair police, and I know this topic can be lightheartedly addressed in a comedic fashion; but black hair is so much more than hair. It's become an illness, and an obsession. The weaves and the relaxer is not the problem, its the FEAR we have behind wearing our hair the way it naturally grows out of our heads that is sick, sad, and disheartening. His general goal in ending this mentality that so many blacks have towards their hair was not reached. I believe to an extent that this topic could have been better handled by someone else. I don't think Chris fully understood the depth of this topic.

I would of liked to have seen the finishing moments of this film shift focus from our undying efforts to tame our hair and focus more on allowing it flourish naturally. He completely neglected our roots and our options as black women. I do not believe that this was intentional nor do i feel like the documentary was a failure.

I feel like the film accepts the Uncle Toms mentality without debunking it and for that reason it reflects black people negatively. In a nut shell, this movie was an exposé of black hair secrets. Most things come to know surprise:

• We know many black women wear weaves and relax their hair because they don't think their own hair is "good"
• We know most black woman would rather die than go nappy.
• We know many of our own black men prefer straight hair
• We know most people think black hair is not appealing.
• [AND I KNOW THAT THESE GENERALIZATIONS ARE NOT ALWAYS TRUE SO DONT ATTACK ME!]

As a natural I was itching in my seat waiting for Chris to bring in the positive spin on our hair and address the "other side" / "green side" for a real kick ass ending that would just pull everything together... that never happened.
The film ended somewhat distastefully as it quickly brushed over the cliche concept of 'loving ourselves because we are not our hair.' Overall the film was entertaining but disappointing.

-Macy

Highlight Quotes

"Taking a Shower with a man can be more intimate than sex. Like your my nigger for real." - Nia Long

This made me laugh because it's absolutely true. I've heard females I know say they wouldn't get in the shower with a dude if they're not too close with him because they wouldn't want to mess up their hair. Meanwhile they've had sex with them already. I love Nia Long she's absolutely adorable by the way.



Chris Rock: Do you feel more intimate with white woman because of their hair
Unnamed ignorant black man in barber shop: HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!

My thoughts: Uncle Ruckus in full effect. He sounded like an absolute douche bag. I can't remember his quote verbatim but why would I want to .. its was complete nonsense.




"Perms are apart of black culture."

-Al Sharpton

My thoughts: Lol i think its absolutely hilarious how he makes this lame excuse. His argument was that relaxers are apart of black culture because we made them. He completely disregards the fact relaxers were created to submit ourselves to white supremacy. It's not our culture. It's the remains of our oppression. I could see how it was 'raped' into our culture and embedded in us among many other things, but it's far from black culture. He goes on to contradict himself with this statement:

"We wake up and comb our oppression... even set it on our night stands."
-AL SHARPTON


"If a woman aint happy with herself, she's gonna bring pain to every-fucking-body."
-Ice T

My thoughts: He's not lying about that at all. I know I do, I know my mom does, and I know all the woman in my life do lol. But the content of what he was saying was that woman should do whatever with their hair that makes me happy. I agree, as long as you aren't ashamed of who you truly are.


"Allowing my hair to grow the same way it comes out of my head is revolutionary."
-_______

My thoughts: This is about the only time the film touches on natural hair really. But this powerful statment could of potentially initiated that much more powerful ending the documentary was missing. It's like the film opened and quickly closed pandora's box with this lol [ OH NO ! THAT WOULD BE TOO INTERESTING]